I am somewhat of a reluctant exerciser. My parents report that I was never one of those kids who moved constantly. I always preferred reading a book to playing with a ball outdoors. And I was thrilled when my middle school offered drama as one of the sports electives. Now, that was my kind of sport!

However, my saving grace in the physical activity realm was tap dance classes. I tap danced for many hours a week from kindergarten onwards. I made friends in the tap dance class and it was a very fun place for me to be. I tap danced all the way through college too and that vigorous daily exercise made me feel great.

I was thinking about that recently as I was contemplating why my current exercise routine feels like a chore. My years of tap dance classes never felt like a burden and yet my home yoga practice, weights workouts, and walking have started to feel boring.

So I was intrigued to read a recent article in the NY Times, which mentions that, for many people, knowing all of the health benefits of physical activity is not enough to get them working out on a regular basis. However, what is enough is the other benefits that so often come with exercise. For some people, that is the social benefit that is present when they exercise with other people. For others, it is the beauty of nature that they enjoy when they exercise outdoors.

The difference seems to be that when we think about exercise as “something we have to do because it’s good for our health,” we are less likely to be excited to do it. But when we can view exercise as a “gift to ourselves because we get so much pleasure out of it,” we are more likely to want to move our bodies on a regular basis. And then we can revel in the perhaps unexpected benefits of exercise like better sleep and reduced stress.

So that’s why tap dancing was never a chore – it involved, fun music, good friends and a lot of laughs. That certainly doesn’t ring true for my current workout routine.

Here’s my solution. I found a friend to join me on my walks and she is going to try out a strength training workout with me too. I roped my 5-year-old son into one of my home yoga sessions. He is guaranteed to make me laugh. And I also started looking online for an adult tap dancing class. This is the year I am going to get back to really enjoying my exercise. Perhaps you want to give that a try too!